What a way to start

It seems that Dominic Grieve has, as he did with grammar schools, forced a re-write of Tory policy. Last night, the Tory position was that they would almost certainly repeal the 42 days legislation but not that they would repeal it. That was still the position when David Cameron spoke to the press to announce that Grieve was the new shadow Home Secretary. But then in his first interview, the new man announced the Tories would definitely repeal it. There was no caveat about this being dependent on it being passed in its current form, no new evidence emerging or anything else. Just a definite commitment.

There are three possible explanations for this. One is that Grieve slipped up. After all, it is an awfully big leap from being shadow Attorney General to shadow Home Secretary. The second is that Grieve, a lawyer who in his maiden speech supported incorporating the European convention on human rights into English law, unilaterally shifted the policy, upsetting the rather delicate balance that had been reached.